Legal Aid sees 56% rise in need for help

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Olivera Perkins

Plain Dealer Reporter

Francine Thompson tried to apply for Unemployment
Compensation when she got laid off last October, but the
state told her she would have to wait until July because she
had gotten a severance package. Then Thompson learned that
co-workers with severance packages were already collecting.

"Why can't I?" Thompson asked.

The jobless computer analyst wanted to fight to collect
sooner, but she couldn't afford a lawyer. She turned to
The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland. So have a lot of
laid-off workers.

"We have seen this marked increase in the number of
people coming to us for legal help relating to employment
issues," said Melanie Shakarian, the
organization's director of development. "We are on
pace to field 904 requests for help this year. That is 56
percent ahead of 2008 and 68 percent of two years ago."

She said the organization, focused on serving low-income
individuals, is turning away as many as 1,400 people. Demand
doesn't seem to be waning. At a recent advice clinic on
employment issues at the Spanish American Committee in
Cleveland, nearly 40 people showed up, about double the
number who attend clinics focused on general legal issues,
Shakarian said.

Some, like Thompson, hadn't been able to collect
right way because their severance packages were
misclassified. Others had problems with 401(k) accounts,
online procedures and employers' claims that they had
been fired for cause.

Private lawyers also are seeing more laid-off workers
needing help, said Michael Brittain, president of the
Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, some of whose
members work on pro bono employment law cases for Legal Aid.

The demand has spiked with the unemployment rate. In
December 2007, the official start of the recession in the
United States, Ohio's jobless rate was 5.8 percent. In
April, the last available figure, it was 10.2 percent.

Many of the new Legal Aid clients are laid-off professionals and other highly paid workers....

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